Athletics success
Arden is proud to announce that that seven of our pupils have been selected to represent the West Midlands County Team at the prestigious AVIVA English Schools' Cross Country Championships taking place on Saturday 17 March 2012.
The Arden pupils, who are all members of Solihull & Small Heath Athletics Club have been chosen to race in the following age categories: -
Junior Girls: Abigail Nolan, Elvie Cox, (Caitlin McDonald, Katie Mladenovic - reserves) (All Year 8)
Junior Boys: Henry Barton (Year 8)
Intermediate Girls: Meredith Cox (Year 10)
Intermediate Boys: Zack Nolan (Year 11)
Front row L-R: Abigail, Caitlin, Katie, Elvie & Henry Back row: Merrie (fourth from left) & Zach (seventh from left)
Everyone selected has proved their strength and consistency over a series of races and trials that started back in September 2011 when the journey towards selection began at the first Solihull Schools' and Solihull League cross country races of the season.
With six races of varying distances covering three age groups, 45 County teams will be taking part in this massive event bringing together over 2000 of England's best young athletes. The cross country course itself is located on an active MOD airfield (RNAS Merryfield) near Taunton in Somerset and promises to be a challenging but interesting venue.
Competing for your County Team is always an honour and achievement, but it will also give our young athletes valuable racing experience at a high calibre sporting event. For some runners, this cross country event has proved to a stepping stone to future glory, with such well known athletes as Mo Farah and Paula Radcliffe, to name two, who made a mark at these same championships early on in their athletics careers.
We wish our pupils all the best for the weeks ahead as they continue training and racing in the lead up to the English Schools' Cross Country Championships and are sure that they will do their best and above all enjoy the whole experience of competing for their County.
Stunning Season Continues for Arden School Stars
Four Year 8 pupils at Arden school won't need any lessons in teamwork this term as they celebrate their latest success in a remarkable winter of road running and cross country racing. Officials have been sent scurrying for the record books as Abigail Nolan, Elvie Cox, Katie Mladenovic and Caitlin Mcdonald bagged four of the eight places up for grabs in the Warwickshire U13 team for the prestigious UK Inter Counties cross country championships. The four girls have also been selected in the West Midlands Schools squad for the English Schools cross country championships in Taunton despite the squad being chosen from Year 9 as well as Year 8 pupils.
Abigail, Caitlin, Elvie and Katie with Mr Murphy
The girls, competing for Solihull & Small Heath AC, have already won team gold medals in the Warwickshire cross country championship and the West Midlands Young Athletes cross country league, the latter against 18 other clubs as far afield as Cannock, Leicester and Northampton over a five race season. Top three finishes were secured in the Midlands road relays and the Midlands cross country championship and an excellent eleventh place in the National road relay championship.
A spokesman for Solihull & Small Heath AC said “The girls under 13 team have had a great season. It's not often that four members from the same club are selected in one team for the Inter Counties. The fact that they are all at the same school is incredibleâ€
You can follow all the action at the Inter Counties championships as the event will be shown live on Sky Sports on Saturday March 10 with the first race at 11:05am. The U13 Girls race starts at 1:33pm.
